THE ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 433, 29 July 1881, Page 19

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL.

(Dnblin Weekly Freeman.) Th f Aic^h'Bhop of Cashel was welcomed with extraordinary demonstrations of: affeclior on Saturday to the ancient head-quarters of his see. His entry into Cashel was the most wonderful event of his more than Royal p'-o«ress through Tippe^ary. He had devoted the «lay to a visitation of the parish of Eoherlane and Dualla, where he was feted as enthusiastically as anywhere. His Grace pet out shortly before seven in the evening for the ancient City of the Kings, accompanied by ils venerable pailor, the Very Key. Dean Quirk, D.G. The .Boherlane baud, wearing green sashes, and marching under a broad g'cen standard, preceded the carriage, and the whole population pong the line of march, on horse and foot, brawny men and children in tbfir pure white confirmation robes, thronged to his carriage window, invoking his Grace's blessing, and heaping their own fervid blessings on his head. The road was one almost unbroken bower of luxuiiantly blossomed hawthorn, and the crowd as they poured along to tbe inspiriting music of " The Wearing of the Green," were no less cha^a-CierinticaHy Irish than the aspect of the surrounding plains, who«e wondrous natural fertility and artificial desolation preached in their own way a touching Land League lesson. Upon crossing the parochial boundaries of Cashel the procession, already bulky enough, was engulphed in an enormous multitude who had come out with bands of music and a forest of green flags and French tri-olours. Tbe Archbishop's carriage was unyoked, and there was a'most a struggle for the honour of drawing it. The procession wound along inimedi<£eJy underneath the escarpment i>f the famous Rock, the band-* playing " Let Krin Remember the days of Old," and probably since the days when the Archbishops of Cashel were its kings no such spectacle of passionate enthusiasm ever passed under its noble shadow. The city, when it was entered through the Lower Gate, was beaming with joy and welcome. Without a single visible exception, the windows and doorways of the houses were wreathed with evergreens and flowers. The Archbishop passed under fully a dozen triumphal arches, bidding him " Caed Mille Failtho," or •' Welcome to the Successor of Coima,c," one of them especially — at the entrance to the Main-stieet — being an elaborately-wrought lsum'l trophy with the device " One Arch of P are" worked in orange and green. Piesently the illuminations and transparencies buist out from om end of the little city to the other, till thousends of lights were twinkling in the still summer ni<jht. But Letter than all these decorative splei,dours were the welcoming faces, Uie bared heads, and the lu-ty roar of the people passing from street to street, till the heart or the old city °.eemed to throb with but one emotion of joy and triumph. The Archbishop, who was deeply moved by tho < xtraor-linary character of the demonstration, was drawn in triumph to tbe entrance to the pajish church, upon the high perron, in front of which an arm-chair bad been placed for him, the flags underneath being carpeted. Mr. J. Mullins, J.P., Chairman of the Town Commissioners, read the address of the parishioners of Cashel and Roe^srreen. The Archbishop, who was received with great enthusiasm, replied as follows: — Mr. Mullins, Mr. Dean, and citizens of Cashel — The series of magnificent demonstrations that has been made recently throughout a great part of this diocese in my favour receives a splendid culmination here in Cashel of the Kings to-day. (Cheers ) The address which Mr. Mullins has read is, indeed, in itself most beautiful, in many senses of course it is too flattering with regard to my humble self — (" No, no ") ; but at tbe same time I recognise fully the sincerity of those who have composed it, and that it has been inspired by the genius of this ancient place, as well as by the patriotism of this pure-minded people. For the address, then, and for this splendid manifestation of your kindness in my regard, I am most deeply grateful. I do not know, in fact, how to return you my thanks for both. You know yourselves that when the heart is fuil the tongue is but a poor interpreter of its emotions, f.n-l, men of Cashel, Mr. Dean, and friends all around me, my heait is full to overflowing to-night. Were lan emptror returning home after having achieved a signal triumph over some baibaric or civilised people, I could not expect that, coming back to the capital of the empire over which I ruled, I could have been the object of any greater demonstration than you have made here to-night, and certainly not of a demonstration so sincere, so thoroughly sympathetic, and so warm-hearted as yours. (Cheers) But you see tbe gi and quality of Irishmen always is that they estimate not so much what a man does as what be moans to do, and though my power of serving Ireland is limited, there is no limit whatever to my desire to serve her. (Loud cheering.) When speaking in another portion of the diocese a few days ago I said that at this crisis of our country's history the most ardent desire of my heart would be to see a fair equilibrium established between the owners of the soil and the tillers of the soil in Ireland. I re^pict that aspiration here this evening at tbe foot of your great historic rock, one of the most magnificent monuments of our history, telling in its glorious outlines of what our race once was, and telling too, in its decay of what we are to-day — bere upon this hallowed spot I repeat that it would be the summit of my ambition that this great excitement, this agitation, this wondrous movement of the Ii ish heart should cease, and cease soon — but provided always that the ends and aims and results which it seeks should be fi st happily and fully accomplished. (Loud cheering.) Now, my friends, what are the results that we aim at. what are the ends we wish to have achieved in this agitation ? I will answer negatively in the first place —I will tell you what these endß are not. It has been charged upon this agitation that it was a crusade against paying legitimate rents to the landlords. It has been charged against it that it was a crusade against paying all your honest liabilities. Well, you know yourselves, my friends, that this is a calumny. (Cheeis.) The leaders of the Land League and of this agitation have never t-aid that rents were not to be paid, but they have said that exorbitant rents — they have said that rackrents — were not to be paid. (Cheers.) Why, 1 myself have been charged with

saying (and it was only within the last two or three months I ever heard of it) — I have been charged, and charged in high places too, wiln saying that no rents were to be paid in this country. The Land Loa rue. of which I am an exponent here to-night, repudiates that doctrine, and so do I. (Cheers.) We are for paying the landlords their legitimate rents — we are for discharging all our honest liabilities' and therefore anyone who says anything to the contrary is calumniating us grossly. I know, to be sure, in the rarly stages of this agitation wild words were spoken, and that silly comparisons were introduced between the air we breathe and the Foil we tiead on ; but as things settled down, and especially when the ecclesiastical element began to make itself felt in the organisation, these unsound and delusive doctrines ceased to exist, and we stood upon the solid ground that th<» owners of the soil have unquebtion. d rights, but that the tillers of the soil have unquestioned rights also. (Cheers.) But what, let me ask, are the legitimate rights of the owners of the soil? Let mo ask ibe directors of any of our own great companies — of the Great Southern and Western Railway or of the National Bank of Ireland, or of any other great commercial concern within the Erapile — let me aok, What do you thii k would be a fair dividend? They will tell me the dividend is the result t>f the profits of the year after we have paid all legitimate expenses, after the directors have been pai<l, after all the clerks and all the workmen have been paid, after all the expenses of the bank or railway have been paid. (Some of those concerns that were able to pay five or six per cent, a few years ago aiv only able to pay three or four per cent. now. How would they look if shareholders had the right to say you must pay us this year what you Imv ■ paid us in years of prosperity even though you have not earned it ? (Cheers.) Theowncsof all sorts of property have to bear the fluctuations of the times ; the intere-it of the landlord alone i* be invariable aud supreme. Now, I say to the landlord as the director would say to the shareholder, if you ask me what is a fair rent I say it is that which an industrious tenant can give to the landloid after providing for himself and his family decently and as ( hiistian people ought. (Applause.) Now, that is one of the points that I wi>,b to make, and in so fur it is an auswer to the question of what is a fair rent ; it is based, in fact, upon the maxim well known to you all, and which I would wish to see piaotised here as £ have seen it practised in every country in which I have li\ed — the maxim, '• hive and let live." (Applaue.) Another charge that has bei-n brought against thi-» organisation is that they wished, for the forcible expropiiation of the landlords of Lelind. No : the leaders of the people never wished for the f ir-.ible . xpropriation of the landlords. If they exproptiatel them at all, they wished ihat they should be bought out. and they always wished to make a bruad distinction between landlords that were good and landlords that wre bad. We have, no doubt, some good ki.i.iloi\!s among us, but we wish them to understand that we are not w irring with individuals but we are warding against a syst»m. (Cheers.) Individuals may be good, and they may be good bee iuse their hearts are good, bat we want to make all the landlords of Ireland good whether they will or not. (Loud cheering.) Now, I c >me back to the original question, which I have so far answered negatively, and I ask again what results do we wish for and what ends are we aiming at ? I will tell you in a few words. We wisa tnat the Irish people should live in Ireland exactly as the Frenchman liv*>s in France, or as the Englishman lives in England. (Cheers.) We have a right to live in our own county. (Cheers.) We are in a gieat many respects one of the finest people on the face of the earth ; we are the most leligious, the most generous, the most unselfish, the most sympathetic, and in many other respects we can compare favourably with any other race upon the habitable globe. We are also a patriotic people. (Oheers.) By " patriotic " I mean that there are no people ou earth who love their country more than Irishmen have loved theirs ; and how do f show this? I could show it in a gnat many wa/s. I have met men of our race in almost eveiy country in the world, and wherever I found them far away I found that their devotion to the country of their b'lth was even more intense than when they were at home. I have known people who came to vis-it Ireland after being ten or fifteen or twenty years away from it — I have known them, at much inconvenience to themselves, to carry bark some memonto — a little bird or a sod of Iri^h soil, and, even as the Dean suggests, travellers have come here and have taken a piece of that grand old rock and carried it awny to America, to expose it in bazaars, knowing that Irish people would throw for it at any expense whatever — (cheers) ; — and not only that, but a case came under my own notice of a most estimable man — one of the most eminent as well as one of the richest m< n in the State of California — who came to revisit Ireland, an 1 what do you think he carried away with him 1 He took away a sod of turf from his native bog, in order that it shoild be in his coffin when he was dead. (Loud cheers.) Don't you think these are proofs that we love our country ? (Cheers.) Therefore if we 1< a* c our country, it is because we are rlriven from it. No Irishman would like to leave it or to live out of it. It is not improvidence or lack of in lustiy that, foices us into exile. These charges, indeed, have been made against us, but they have been falsely made. To my own knowledge our people labour as hard as any upon earth - they aie as thrifty, as industrious, as capable, as keen-witted, as full of fj-eiriup, as any other nice —yet, though we carry all these great gifts with us elsewhere, &> enrich the foreign lands of our adop ion. these gifts are unfortunately not only no cause of advancement in this country, but ur»i very frequently the very qualities that bring us into trouble, if rot into disiepute. (Cheors.) One thin?, then, that I say this agitation aims at is that the Government of the country should c >me to our assistance. There aie some ten thousand landlords and there are about four millions of people dependent on the land, ana we say here from this historic spot to-night, is it not a shame that a Government which pretends to be liberal and good and kind would not come to the assistance of those four millions, even though it were done at the expense of the ten thousand 1 The Government can do it and the Government ought to do it, and we can assure them that if they take up this question as they ought — if they bring in a really good Land Bill, or even if

they decently amend the Bill they are offering— they will establish a Claim to the gratitude of our race, and they may reckon that Ireland will be strongly at their back in all their difficulties. (Applause.) There is one thing that I would urge upon the Government to-night, and it is this — evictions are going on by the thousand I may say through the country. (Groans.) Why should not the Government step in even now and say "This cruel thing must cease? These , people cannot meet the demands made upon them ; they Lave been j struggling for the last few years against famine and against all manner of disasters and losses; they, therefore, cannot meet their liabilities ; let us in the name of God cry quits, and begin a new ecore; and so far as we, the Government, are concerned, we will allow no man for the future to be evicted from his home." (Cheers.) Let them say that, or if tbey will not say that — if they thiuk they cannot stop evictions without introducing a bill with that object, let them do this, and we will be thankful— let them not send out their soldiers and police to help to drive the people from their homes, in order to collect rack-rents for a few landlords (loud cheers). I have only to say this, in conclusion, that we are determined to stand by this agitation, as it is constitutionally directed (cheers). It is now in the hands., I might say, of the people themselves. We have confidence in the leaders who have brought us to this point. Now, especially that our clerey are identified with the movement, there need be no fear for its future. I shall be always there myself as far as my humble abilities go to guide and to guard it and to bless it (loud cheers). But then, on the other hand, I will expect dutiful obedience on the part of the people — I will expect that when I pronounce a certain thing good — you know me, and you know that I would sooner cut off my right hand than make an unworthy compromise, or take any pusillanimus step (cheers), but I know well how far we can go and how much we can expect, and when I say " don't go farther," I trust that the people, and especially my own people, who know me, will bo at once obedient to what I tell them, and if they are, you may rest perfectly sure that the Government will see that we are upon the right track (cheers). The agitation will continue until its success is consummated, and peace and prosperity will come upon the country once more, those friendly relations between class and class that have been buspended will be restored, everything will flourish in the country again, and the Government, such as it is. that will achieve such a result a« that, besides earning the good will and approbation of all the world, and especially of our brethren in America, will also, I am ■sure, receive the kindliest gratitude of the Irish people (cheers). I wish you and them every happiness, I wish you every success in all your legitimate efforts, and I hope that when we meet here again, upon an occasion like the present, on the occasion of an episcopal visitation, everyone that is here, great and small, will be enjoying peace, and health, and happiness (great cheering).